PM Nikol Pashinyan Holds Phone Conversation with IRI President Hassan Rouhani

YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today held a telephone conversation with President Hassan Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The conversation focused on a number of issues of bilateral cooperation. The sides evoked with satisfaction the recent meeting of the Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission in Tehran. They highlighted the need for implementing the agreements reached at the commission sitting.

The two heads of state discussed the prospects of cooperation between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union. Views were exchanged on regional developments.

Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigorian met in Tehran last Tuesday, with President Rouhani. The latter told him that the two neighboring nations should deepen their relations despite the U.S. economic sanctions against Tehran.

Rouhani reaffirmed his country’s commitment to joint energy and transport projects planned or already implemented by the Armenian and Iranian governments.

“The people of Iran have had a very good and sincere relationship with the Armenian people historically and culturally, and the two countries, in addition to being neighbors, have very high levels of cooperation,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Rouhani said they should step up that cooperation despite the “illegal” U.S. sanctions. “I have no doubt that we are the ultimate winner in this unjust confrontation [with Washington,] and it is in this situation that close work with our neighbors will be remembered in history,” he added, according to another Iranian news agency, ISNA.

Rouhani already declared after talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in February that Tehran and Yerevan “will not allow any third state to interfere in our cordial relations.”